3 problematic Roadrunners players for Texas football in Week 3

Joshua Cephus, WR

UTSA’s top trio of wide receivers is the best that it gets in the Group of Five this season. The top three wideouts for the Roadrunners, seniors De’Corian Clark, Joshua Cephus, and Zakhari Franklin, were insanely productive out of the gates this fall.

These three have combined for 40 catches for a whopping 600 receiving yards and six touchdown catches through just two games so far this season.

Maybe the most impressive of the three, and probably the one that can cause the most problems for the Longhorns is Cephus. The 6-foot-3 and 190-pound Cephus is one part of the dynamic duo of outside receivers for the Roadrunners along with Franklin.

But what Cephus brings to the table is a different level of vertical ability and potency to have explosive plays any time he touches the ball.

According to College Football Data, Cephus currently ranks third in the C-USA in predicted points added on passing plays. That essentially shows that Cephus is able to make the most out of the plays where he does get the ball in his hands more so than any other skill player on this offense on passing downs.

Cephus also has 18 contested catches on a little more than 40 contested targets in his career at UTSA. That means that he has more career contested catches than star sophomore Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy and redshirt junior Jordan Whittington combined.

Where Cephus can also do some damage to the Texas defense is in the short passing game. Cephus is really elusive in the open field and his ability to make guys miss is pretty underrated. It’s important to note that Cephus is most often targeted in the short passing game, with more than 50 percent of his targets coming no further than nine yards in front of the line of scrimmage.

In fact, Cephus leads C-USA this season in yards after the catch on short passes, with a whopping 65 thus far. That’s also good for second in the Group of Five.

There is not a better UTSA skill player at making things happen after the catch than Cephus. With Texas possibly playing without senior corner D’Shawn Jamison this weekend, this could be a tough matchup for this secondary in the short passing game.